FDI in retail vote: Handsome win without Sachin Tendulkar's single

Deft handling by government’s political managers saw BSP and a few Opposition MPs voting along with UPA.

NEW DELHI: The government on Friday was able to defeat a BJP-sponsored motion, opposing entry to foreign supermarkets, by a handsome margin in the Rajya Sabha, where it is in a hopeless minority.

Deft handling by government's political managers saw BSP and a few Opposition MPs voting along with UPA. Though SP members abstained from voting, just as they had done in the Lok Sabha, the Mayawati-led BSP bailed out the government in the upper House, where numbers were stacked against it.

The Opposition suffered further embarrassment as some MPs broke ranks and either abstained or absented themselves. They included G Sudharani, D Goud and YS Chawdry of TDP, Bashishta Narayan of JD(U), Lalming Liana of MNF, Sanjiv Kumar of JMM and BJD rebel Pyarimohan Mohapatra.

JD(U)'s Upendra Kushwaha, who had turned a rebel, voted with the government, defying the party whip. So did businessmen MPs Rajeev Chandrashekhar and Vijay Mallya, both elected with support of BJP and Janata Dal (S).

RK Dhoot, elected with Shiv Sena's support, absented himself. Ajay Sancheti turned out to be the lone businessman who voted for the motion opposing FDI in retail. "The reform process will continue," said parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath, after the vote.

According to a person familiar with the matter, after the government won the vote in Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had called up most independent members who were yet undecided and requested their support in the Rajya Sabha.

BSP leader Mayawati, whose 15 Rajya Sabha members made the crucial difference, was in constant touch with senior Congress leaders including Ahmed Patel, a senior leader said. "Whenever our government does any economic reform in the interest of the nation, the Opposition opposes it as it is doing in the case of FDI in multi-brand retail," Congress leader T Subbarami Reddy said during the debate, arguing that even BJP leaders, in their hearts, supported the government's decision to open up the sector to FDI.

Of the three missing TDP members, Goud failed to turn up, G Sudha Rani left for Hyderabad on Thursday evening and YS Chawdry, who was spotted having a quiet smoke in the Central Hall, just half an hour before the vote, disappeared soon after.

A despondent looking Nandamuri Harikrishna, TDP member and son of NT Rama Rao, confirmed the defection, "Yes, only I and CM Ramesh were present in the House from our party," Harikrishna said. Despite Mayawati's assurance, the government did not spare any effort to get every willing and able MP, and some not so able, to vote.

While Jagdish Waghmare of NCP, who was in a Mumbai hospital with a broken hip was flown in by an air ambulance to Delhi, senior Congress leader Janardhana Reddy was brought in a wheelchair to Parliament House.

Both MPs voted from the lobby of the Rajya Sabha by special dispensation. However, former petroleum minister Murli Deora, who is recuperating from a surgery, could not make it. Also missing was cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who is playing the third test against England at Eden Gardens.